As part of the Monthly Cycle of Seminars Social Movements and Political Action, the seminar “The form, field and order of anti-extractivist protests in Mozambique” will take place on November 27, at 4pm, in a hybrid format.

Speaker
Ruy Llera Blanes, anthropologist, is a principal researcher at Iscte - University Institute of Lisbon, associated with CRIA and In2Past. He has developed long-standing research in Angola, around themes such as religion, memory, temporality and heritage, landscape and environment, human rights and political activism. More recently, he started research in the province of Cabo Delgado in Mozambique, around the impact of extractive projects and the energy transition. He is the author of the books A Prophetic Trajectory (2014, Berghahn Books) and A Revolução Angolana no Século XXI (2023, Tinta-da-china).

Location
Iscte - Knowledge and Innovation, Building 4, Room A202

Abstract
In this seminar, Ruy Llera Blanes proposes to map the dynamics of social mobilization – from NGOs to peasant associations, communal protests and platforms of those affected – around new extractive projects in Mozambique, in the context of the current debates on the energy transition. Through examples taken from field research in Maputo, Pemba and Balama, Ruy Llera Blanes will seek to explore how transnational movements intersect with local claims in the context of the deployment of infrastructure related to extractive mega-projects in Cabo Delgado, concerning natural gas and graphite. Ruy Llera Blanes will propose that these intersections form a "field" with concrete potentialities and limitations in terms of identifying and responding to the problems of local communities.